Simultaneously with the announcement of the new Surface and the Copilot+ PC category this morning, Microsoft also gave some new features that will arrive in Windows 11. The most interesting we feel is Windows Recall which remembers all the activities and file locations on the user's PC.
Microsoft says Recall is like having a virtual assistant with a photographic memory. Users can ask where the location of a downloaded file is as fast as lightning. It can also remember certain emails sent using Outlook. Websites visited by users can also be retrieved by asking Recall and providing the necessary context.
It can also be asked to find pictures when on vacation for example with a certain person. AI Recall will understand the context by looking at GPS location as well as facial recognition to display the search results that the user wants.
For the paranoid, all Recall memories are stored on the PC and not sent to the cloud. This is where the capabilities of the NPU chip on the AI PC and Copilot+ PC are used to perform built-in AI tasks. Users are given the option to turn off or pause Recall. They can also limit what activities can be recorded.
Recall will take 25GB of storage on the computer which is equivalent to memory storage for 3 months. If this storage is used up, all old memory will be discarded. Therefore users should be aware that Recall is not an AI that can remember the user's activities forever.
Also introduced by Microsoft this morning is Cocreator which is a generative AI that generates images based on sketches provided by users. The issue with AI image generators is that they are too random with no control over the composition of the final image. CoCreator users can do a rough sketch and the final image will be generated using a manual sketch by the user.
Lastly is the Restyle Image in the Photos application. Users can direct the app to change the style of the original image with options like Anime, Fantasy, Surrealism and more. A new imeh can be generated without the user spending hours doing it himself in the Photoshop application.
The Recall feature, and CoCreator, will be processed in-machine by the NPU and are therefore currently exclusive to Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon X chips. AI PCs using Intel chips will not receive this feature as it requires an NPU of at least 40 TOPS which is more powerful than the Intel Core Ultra chip.